Literacy News You Can Use - December 2017

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Literacy News You Can Use

RESEARCH

Improve Elementary Grades Writing with New Resources from the WWC
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers, provides four evidence-based recommendations that educators can use to help elementary students strengthen their writing skills. Two additional resources are now available that can help teachers put these recommendations into action:

Instructional Tips Based on the Educator’s Practice Guide: These tips translate practice guide recommendations into actions and approaches that educators can use in their classrooms. Each set of instructional tips highlights a key concept and presents relevant how-to steps that are actionable and supported by evidence; and
Summary of Evidence for Instructional Tips Based on the Educator’s Practice Guide: This summary describes the research evidence that supports the classroom approaches included in the Instructional Tips.

Visit whatworks.ed.gov today to download these supplemental resources along with the full Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers practice guide and see more WWC literacy reports. For the latest WWC news, follow the WWC on Twitter and Facebook.

From WestEd.org:

INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE AND RESOURCES

Open Up Resources Announces Two New ELA Curricula
Open Up Resources, the nonprofit provider of openly licensed curriculum for K–12 schools, is developing two new full-course English language arts curricula: Bookworms K–5 Reading & Writing, which it will create with the University of Delaware’s Sharon Walpole, and an enhanced version of Louisiana state’s ELA Guidebooks 2.0 for high school, which it is creating with the state of Louisiana and Odell Education.

CommonLit.org: Free Fiction & Nonfiction Literacy Resources
CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy development for students in grades 5-12.

From Achievethecore.org:

The Many Positive Uses For Assessment - Three ways to use assessment for good.
Three Steps to Engage Students in Research Writing - A high school teacher shares concrete suggestions for sparking curiosity and stimulating quality research questions.

Vermont Writing Collaborative: Research Packs
A set of easy-to-use materials that guides students and teachers through the process of focused research and writing to inform or explain. The Kindergarten – Grade 5 Research Packs were collaboratively developed by educators under the guidance of the Vermont Writing Collaborative and Student Achievement Partners.

NEWS

Iowa Core Voice from the Field Blog - Essential for All: Language and Literacy for Students with Significant Disabilities
Dawn Bonsall, special education teacher in Council Bluffs Community School District, discusses how educators are making efforts to align instruction with the Iowa Core Essential Elements.

One Sentence at a Time: The Need for Explicit Instruction in Teaching Students to Write Well
Practical suggestions for significantly improving writing instruction and supporting knowledge-building at the same time.

Achievementnetwork.org: Deep Engagement with Text at Any Age
The team at Liberty Elementary School in Springfield, MA recently shifted their ELA approach from standards-based planning to text-based planning. They couldn’t be happier with the results: Students are developing a deeper understanding of texts and improving the way they speak and write about them.

Edutopia.org: Why Students Forget and What You Can Do About It
Human brains are wired to forget, but there are research-based strategies educators can use to make their teaching stick.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Achievethecore.org: Using Achieve the Core Tools to Tackle Common ELA Issues
January 10 - This ’Tour de Core’, designed for those who are less familiar with Achieve the Core, will introduce participants to resources that address the following topics: 1) Complex text: How to determine appropriate text complexity and scaffold complex text for struggling readers, 2) How to design strong, text- dependent questions, 3) How to integrate the ELA standards into your PLC, 4) How to work with imperfect ELA materials, 5) Building knowledge through reading.

UnboundEd: Podcasts with Literacy Experts
UnboundEd is committed to bringing educators wisdom of the field’s top experts, so that they can be equipped with research-backed strategies for getting all your students up to grade-level and on to college and career readiness. Here are three most popular podcast episodes on literacy:

Advancing Student Knowledge Through Close Reading and Volumes of Reading - David Liben
Writing Instruction in the Era of Higher Standards - Dr. Judith Hochman
The Place of Argumentation in Curriculum - Judson Odell

TLC RESOURCES

From Achievethecore.org:

Research Supporting the Student Achievement Partners’ Instructional Practice Guide Coaching Tool. Outlines the research behind the Core Actions and Indicators, how they connect to the Shifts, and how they support content-focused observation.

Find resources that are designed to help take a step back, take stock of what’s working, and consider the content and structures that will allow a school or district to refocus its efforts to support teachers with their professional growth:

Take the Teacher Professional Learning Diagnostic Assessment. Education Resource Strategies (ERS) believes that professional learning should be connected to the everyday work of teaching. See how your district's professional learning model stacks up to their best practice criteria.
Read the Council of the Great City Schools' Supporting Excellence Framework which includes concrete recommendations on how to support implementation of a high-quality curriculum. You can also read an overview of the Framework in this Aligned blog post.
Discuss the six recommendations for achieving content-focused professional learning in Practice What You Teach, a paper written by standards' author Sue Pimentel and the Aspen Institute's Ross Wiener. Then use the new checklists for school leaders or system leaders to see where you are and plan your next steps.

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Destiny Eldridge
Education Consultant (Literacy)
Iowa Department of Education
400 E 14th St
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-822-2554
destiny.eldridge@iowa.gov

Literacy on www.EducateIowa.gov
Literacy Resources on www.IowaCore.gov
ELA/Literacy Standards